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The country’s richest woman, Savitri Jindal, was Tuesday inducted as a minister in the Haryana cabinet by Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda.

This is the second time that she has become a minister in the Hooda government. She was earlier a minister of state in the 2005-09 Hooda government.

Jindal is a legislator from the ruling Congress from Hisar assembly constituency and is the mother of industrial tycoon and high-profile parliament member Naveen Jindal (Lok Sabha member  from Kurukshetra).

She was listed by a leading business publication as the country’s richest woman as she lords over a multi-billion rupee steel and power sector empire and is the chairperson of the Jindal Group.

Her name also figures in the Top-100 richest people in the world.

SWavitri Jindal’s industrialist-cum-politician husband O.P.Jindal, who too was a minister in the Hooda government, was killed when his private helicopter crashed near the Haryana-Uttar Pradesh border March 2005.

Jindal was sworn-in Tuesday along with the other new minister, Aftab Ahmed, who is a legislator from Nuh assembly constituency in Mewat district and the only Muslim face in the Hooda ministry.

Two ministerial slots in the Hooda government were vacant ever since ministers O.P.Jain and Gopal Kanda resigned in June 2011 and August 2012 respectively, after their names figured in separate criminal cases.

The 90-member Haryana assembly goes to polls in October next year. Earlier this year, Jindal was directed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to vacate her government accommodation, which she had been occupying unauthorisedly.

She has been occupying a ministerial bungalow in Chandigarh’s upscale Sector 7, even though she ceased to be a minister in 2009.

The court said that eviction proceedings be started if she did not vacate the house. A penalty of Rs.89 lakh was also slapped on her  for occupying the house.

Two more bombs found, defused in Patna---(IANS)

Two bombs were found in and around Patna’s Gandhi Maidan Tuesday, on a day when union Home Secretary Anil Goswami visited the spot that saw a string of explosions the previous day, police said.

One of the two bombs was found barely half an hour before Goswami’s visit to the site.

"One after another, two bombs were found Tuesday," Patna senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj said.

The first  bomb was found near S.K. Memorial hall, hardly 50 metres from Gandhi Maidan. The bomb was defused by the bomb disposal squad. The second bomb was found in Gandhi Maidan, police officials said.

The first bomb was detected when a police team was on a drive to search for hidden bombs.

"Immediately the bomb disposal squad defused it," a police official said.

Suspecting that more live bombs were in and around Gandhi Maidan, Manu Maharaj appealed to people to tell them if they spot any suspicious article.

"Police have requested people not to touch any suspicious article and inform police immediately if they find anything," Maharaj said.

Police, till now, have recovered six live bombs from Gandhi Maidan. A series of blasts took place Sunday before Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was to address a rally in Gandhi Maidan.

Two bombs were found in and around Patna’s Gandhi Maidan Tuesday, on a day when union Home Secretary Anil Goswami visited the spot that saw a string of explosions the previous day, police said.

One of the two bombs was found barely half an hour before Goswami’s visit to the site.

"One after another, two bombs were found Tuesday," Patna senior Superintendent of Police Manu Maharaj said.

The first  bomb was found near S.K. Memorial hall, hardly 50 metres from Gandhi Maidan. The bomb was defused by the bomb disposal squad. The second bomb was found in Gandhi Maidan, police officials said.

The first bomb was detected when a police team was on a drive to search for hidden bombs.

"Immediately the bomb disposal squad defused it," a police official said.

Suspecting that more live bombs were in and around Gandhi Maidan, Manu Maharaj appealed to people to tell them if they spot any suspicious article.

"Police have requested people not to touch any suspicious article and inform police immediately if they find anything," Maharaj said.

Police, till now, have recovered six live bombs from Gandhi Maidan. A series of blasts took place Sunday before Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi was to address a rally in Gandhi Maidan.

Nitish hits back at Modi, says his dream of PM will remain so  (PTI)

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today hit back at Narendra Modi, comparing him to Hitler and said his desperate dream to unfurl national flag at Red Fort would remain unfulfilled.

Days after Modi launched an no-holds barred attack on him in a Patna rally, he rejected the accusation that he had "betrayed and backstabbed" socialist stalwarts like Jaiprakash Narayan and Ram Manohar Lohia.

Kumar said Modi neither has "sweetness in his voice" nor "patience" required of somebody aspiring for the top post and questioned his knowledge of history.

"When had I deserted JP’s ideology? Just because JP comes in BJP, he (Modi) made the allegation by linking the two together as it rhymes.... Lohia brought parties together to fight Congress. BJP is walking its own path alone. Where is the comparison," he said in his address to his party JD(U)’s convention, accusing BJP of weakening the fight against Congress.

Modi, the Chief Minister said, believed in repeating a lie hundred times to make it sound true. All this talk about Modi wave is also part of this misinformation campaign and there is no truth in it, he alleged.

"His dream to unfurl national flag at Red Fort would remain a dream," Kumar said.
"It is not just dictatorship. It is fascism and those who believe in fascism, their icon is Hilter. They they will do what Hitler did. Hitler’s propaganda minister would tell a lie hundreds of times and it would seem to be true. The same thing is happening here now," he said.

Dismissing Modi’s barb that he was dreaming to become prime minister, he asked when did he dream to become PM but added that such an aspiration was not a bad thing.
"Gujaratis are very fond of ice-creams but this sweetness is not visible in his (Modi) speech. He kept drinking water, wiping sweat and cursing me... The man dreaming to be on the country’s highest post should be sober, why this unnecessary excitement and hurry?

"You can create hype around an individual but it can’t ensure your victory. Bihar’s poor will vote for those who fight for them. Those aspiring for the top post must speak sweetly with everybody and take everyone along," he said.

Kumar also picked holes in Modi’s references to some of their meetings where he alleged that the JD(U) leader was uncomfortable in his presence while sharing a table with him over lunch.

"These are incorrect," he said referring to Modi’s claim that he had was not taking food and water at a lunch hosted by the Prime Minister and that the Gujarat leader had to comfort him saying that there were no cameras around.

He also dismissed claim that Modi had served Kumar ’khaman and dhokla’ to his heart’s content after which he had praised the Gujarat Chief Minister at a lunch in his state years ago.

"When did he host me. What I remember is that I attended the function of the Chief Justice. He (Modi) was a guest and I too was a guest there," Kumar said.
Modi keeps harping about his early days as a tea-seller, Kumar said, adding that he also came from an ordinary family but never made a fuss about it.
"I am the son of a freedom fighter. I am also from an ordinary background.I am an ordinary man, anything can be said against me.
"One can’t be a backward leader by just being born in such a family. What you have done for backward castes is important. I do not have the experience of selling tea in stations," he said
On Modi’s remarks that Kumar had returned the aid for Kosi flood victims sent by Gujarat, the Bihar Chief Minister said that in Indian culture one does not praise oneself.
"Gujarat government sent money for Kosi flood victims and then they started advertising that they had helped Bihar. If one helps someone, then it should not be advertised. The cheque was returned and then they encashed it."

Questioning him on history,    Kumar said, "I also have knowledge of history. I never left Jaiprakash Narayan. He said I backstabbed JP and Ram Manohar Lohia. In fact JP and Lohia had taken on these forces head on and also forced them into corner. I have never compromised on my principles and followed the path shown by JP and Lohia."

In a point-by-point rebuttal in his 90-minute speech, Kumar, Kumar said that while speaking against him at the Patna rally, Modi had in his "excitement" given out wrong historical information.

Acting like a "knowledgeable person", Modi referred to Chandragupta as great king of Gupta dynasty instead of Maurya dynasty which ruled from Patliputra which is now Patna.
"The BJP leader in excitement cited wrong history by saying Taxila was a great historical site in Bihar which is wrong as the place is in North-West Pakistan. Chanakya, the great economist who had written ’Arthasashtra’, was a teacher there before coming to Patliputra," a smiling Kumar said, adding he had even visited there once.

"King Alexender had never reached Ganga as he was stopped at river Satluj itself," he said.

He urged the people to ensure that communal forces do not emerge victorious. "Let not your difference lead to communal violence. Let the dream to hoist the Indian flag at the Red Fort be a dream only."

Tracing the events that led to the split Kumar blamed the BJP for breaking the 17-year-old alliance with the JDU.

"What did we want? We suggested that the leader for the prime minister’s post should be someone who is accepted by all, someone who works for all.

"If you have to win, there should be single target. You (BJP) have set two targets, one to remove Congress and the second is to take all the credit. It is wrong to blame us whereas you have betrayed us," he said.

"Yesterday you were with me and you would appreciate and praise me. Now that we are not allies and you are finding faults with me," he said.

ATM robbery bid foiled, security guard killed----DHNS

A guard at an IDBI Bank ATM in Doddanekundi was killed in the early hours of Monday by two miscreants while resisting a theft attempt. The deceased has been identified as Hari Shankar Sharma (25).

The theft bid was foiled by two alert police constables on night patrol. The miscreants assaulted the policemen before fleeing. The City police launched a massive manhunt and arrested Jintu Devnath (20) and Naboakaur (21), both from Assam, within hours.
The City police control room on Sunday alerted all policemen on night patrol about an attempted ATM theft at Ramagondanahalli, Whitefield.

The cops were asked to check the ATMs in their jurisdiction. Manjunath Swamy and Chikka Narasimhaiah, two constables attached to the Mahadevapura police station, set out on a round following the instructions.

The constables spotted at least two men inside a dark ATM counter in Doddanekundi. Swamy and Narasimhaiah tried to lock them inside, but in vain. “It could not be locked from outside. So one of us held on to the door so that the miscreants could not escape. But they shattered the glass door with an iron rod. A few shards hit us as well. They escaped taking advantage of the chaos. We chased the miscreants, but could not capture them,” the constables said.

On their return to the counter, the policemen were shocked to see the guard brutally murdered. Hari Shankar Sharma, a security guard with AP Security Private Ltd, was from Madhya Pradesh. He lived at Labour Colony, Kadubeesanahalli, here. P S Harsha, DCP (East), said Sharma was stabbed on the forehead, chest and abdomen. He could have been hit on the head with an iron rod as well. He died on the spot.

The miscreants had tried to break open the ATM and succeeded partially. But they could not reach the safe, where the money was stacked. Harsha said they would have succeeded in their attempt had the cops not reached on time.

He said security guards at ATMs should be adequately armed, unlike Sharma, who did not have any weapon. “If the security guard had a firearm, he could have saved himself,” Harsha said.

Let Arjun Tendulkar enjoy his cricket: Rohan Gavaskar     (PTI)

Well aware of the burden of expectations that comes with a legendary surname, former India player Rohan Gavaskar is miffed at the way the cricket fraternity is following each and every move of Sachin Tendulkar’s 14-year-old son, Arjun.

Clearly not in a mood to discuss the progress made by the junior Tendulkar in school level cricket, Rohan said the kid should be left alone and allowed to "enjoy" his cricket.

"This is something I do not wish to discuss. I don’t want to talk about it," Rohan said at first.

Prodded a bit and the son of the legendary Sunil Gavaskar said, "The kid should be left alone, let him enjoy his cricket.

"I have spoken to Sachin, I have spoken to Anjali (Tendulkar) about it. This is not fair on them."

While his father is considered to be one of India’s finest ever batsman, the 37-year-old Rohan couldn’t really reach those dizzy heights during a cricket career spanning over a decade and a half.

Rohan played in 11 One-day internationals, with 54 being his best. With 6938 runs and 18 centuries in 117 matches, his first-class record stands a lot better. He had also captained Bengal for two seasons. Gavaskar had retired from first-class cricket last year.

Now a cricket commentator, Rohan shared the box with his father during the current ODI series against Australia, against whom he made his One-day debut in January 2004.

Knowing well that constant comparison could be a problem, Rohan doesn’t want Arjun to be weighed on the same scale as his legendary father when he grows up.

Arjun, who bats left-handed, had scored a century in the Mumbai Cricket Association’s Under-14 selection trials in May last year.

Govt could ban official use of gmail, yahoo by year-end--(PTI)

Wary of cyber snooping, the government could ban e-mail services such as Gmail and Yahoo for official communications by December this year in a move to safeguard its critical and sensitive data.

The government is expected to route all its official communication through the official website NIC’s email service.

The Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY) is drafting a policy on e-mail usage for government offices and departments and the policy is almost ready. The department is now taking views from other ministries on it.

"E-mail policy of the government of India, as this policy will be called, is almost ready and we are taking views from other ministries on this. Our effort will be to operationalise it by mid or end-December," DEITY Secretary J Satyanarayana told reporters on the sidelines of a CII summit.

According to official sources, the policy seeks to protect the large amount of critical government data.

It also aims to make it mandatory for government offices to communicate only on the nic.in platform rather than commercial email services like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail etc.

The policy is expected to cover about 5-6 lakh Central and State government employees for using the email service provided by National Informatics Centre (NIC).

On investments required for the policy, Satyanarayana said: "We immediately require about Rs 4-5 crore to ramp up the NIC infrastructure. But, the total investment needed for the full operationability of the e-mail policy could be around Rs 50-100 crore."

This will also include integrating the e-mails with cloud so that official data can be saved on a cloud platform, which can then be easily shared with the concerned government ministries and departments, he added.

The development comes close on heels of concerns being raised by a section in the government, especially intelligence agencies, over use of email services, provided by foreign firms (mostly US-based), which have their servers located in overseas locations, making it difficult to track if sensitive government data is being snooped upon.

The move also assumes significance in light of the fallout of the Snowden saga, which contended the US intelligence agencies used a secret data-mining programme to monitor worldwide Internet data to spy on various countries, including India.

Former technical contractor for National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency Edward Snowden had leaked what was allegedly details of a top-secret American mass surveillance programme, which led to countries analysing the safety of their official Internet-supported communication networks.